Author
Topic: Golden Hand Mercenary Company (Read 7168 times)

Hello everyone, I have operated the Golden Hand Mercenary Company (GHC) for about a year in game solo. Serving in a few different campaigns. After losing all the men in my company, and then being captured (later released). I decided to find some territory and other First Ones to expand and fuel my efforts for GHC.

In Game my name is Dan Leedos, Boss of the Golden Hand Mercenary Company. I just wanted to let every know we are open for business.

According to the realm page: Current number or troops able to be employed: 100 men for 120 gold for 1 month (4 weeks) of service. Equals .3 gold per man per week. 20 equipped men may be substituted as payment.

Hmm way too cheap, in my opinion... What if you as the mercenary noble want to hire other tavern mercenaries to follow using that gold you're getting? 120 gold for four weeks is practically nothing. You can't pay for a proper company for any amount of time. I can get more than that by looting my own settlement, which takes 4 in-game hours. I think you should raise the rates of your guild, my friend.

Remember, you're not just offering men like the mercenaries in the tavern. You're offering yourself and potentially other First Ones as captains. And you're also offering another huge advantage-- discretion. That means you have all the right to demand not just as much, but a whole hell of a lot MORE than those tavern mercenaries ask, for such services. Let's not be skimpy here. You can ask for gold numbers in the thousands and I know more than a few people who'd gladly pay, myself included.

Jack up your prices my friend or allow those mercenaries that are a part of your realm to set their own. If you'll do that, I'll start a character in your realm by tomorrow.

Hey, thanks for the interest. I offered A substantially low price at first to increase our popularity and allow us to show our effectiveness. I do plan on raising the prices in the near future, to probably double or Triple our current rate.

In order to protect our selves, I have asked most of our neighbors and potential employers to sign this charter: A number have already signed.

##The Common Operations Charter of The Golden Hand Mercenary Company##The acronym GHC stands for the Golden Hand Mercenary Company from this point onThis charter contains two parts. One containing the terms on how the GHC will operate and how it is to be handled by other sovereign realms. The second part is for those who wish to officially support and protect GHC.### Part I ### * You recognize that the territory controlled by the GHC as an independent realm and its sovereignty is to be respected at all times. * The GHC may be employed to fight against you, you are to not attack, loot, take over, or harm in any other way GHC territory. Unless under the stipulation that that territory was taken from your realm in the past 4 months. sidenote: it will generally be GHC policy to not take territory directly in favor of supporting the takeover of our employers. * GHC will not use its territory to quarter or shelter any combatants other than GHC members. * First Ones captured by GHC members will be turned over to our current employer as part of our general service contract states. * GHC members captured are to be returned back to GHC alive and free of ransom, In return they will immediately return to GHC territory with the remaining men under their service and will no longer be under the bounds of their contract of their employer. * Once we receive payment and a GHC contract takes effect that contract is public and no attempts will be made to hide the identity of the employer. * Violators of these terms may be banned from future contracts with GHC and will be sought after and punished for their violations. The terms of punishment being decided by the GHC on a case by case basis.By signing this document you hereby agree to the terms within this partX___________________### Part II ### * Officially declare your support of GHC to your realms and neighbors. * You will protect the sovereign territory of GHC from any outside threat, be it signatories of Part I or not upon the request of GHC. * Help deal out punishment to violators of Part I.By signing this document you hereby agree to the terms within this partX___________________

The charter is pretty necessary if the group is to survive. When the White Company existed, Hawks guaranteed its freedom from retaliation, but then it was not independent. If people view the realm the same as any other, it will simply spend all its time fighting off invasions.

Hey, thanks for the interest. I offered A substantially low price at first to increase our popularity and allow us to show our effectiveness. I do plan on raising the prices in the near future, to probably double or Triple our current rate.

While I appreciate your desire to prove yourself to the nations around you, your asking price is still way too modest. Double 120 is 240, triple is 360, and that's still chump change for a month's commission of a First One with a hundred soldiers. Let me provide you with some perspective. I have characters that own villages with less than 500 population and towns with as much as 2000. In those villages, my nobles there can tax (loot) about a couple hundred gold in a week. In the town of 2000, I can gain 600-1000 gold in a SINGLE looting attempt. If I dedicate my character to looting for a week, I can have many multiple thousands of gold within my coffers.

Gold is easy to come by and you shouldn't be afraid to ask for a lot. Even unproven, you offer some big advantages. And if you disappoint and rip people off by taking money but offering no service, well it's not like neighboring factions couldn't make their lost funds back within a week or, if they're feeling particularly vindictive about it, invade and crush you if they wanted. Your starting price should be considerably higher, and I say that as a potential member interested in joining and a possible client.

The fact is-- what are you going to do with that gold people pay you? Buy mercenaries in the tavern. And 120/240/360 gold is not enough to maintain a tavern mercenary unit for any period of time. You're offering a month's service for your captains in exchange for the kind of pay that couldn't keep an equivalent amount of tavern mercenaries around for a single week. That's not just cheap-- you're practically taking a loss, my friend, and that doesn't make your company seem very encouraging to join.

Your mercenary captains can make more money by sitting in low-population villages looting themselves than moving and risking their butts to participate in someone else's war. That's bad business. Granted, members might not want to sit around doing something so dull, but you should incentive them by offering more than just battle excitement and roleplay potential. Make it profitable. After all, that's what mercenaries are in it for, right? Money, fame, and renown through battle. So don't skimp out on the money part of that equation even at this early stage.

Now let's tackle your charter:

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* You recognize that the territory controlled by the GHC as an independent realm and its sovereignty is to be respected at all times.

Fair enough. For you to maintain your land, such a charter would have to be signed.

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* The GHC may be employed to fight against you, you are to not attack, loot, take over, or harm in any other way GHC territory. Unless under the stipulation that that territory was taken from your realm in the past 4 months. sidenote: it will generally be GHC policy to not take territory directly in favor of supporting the takeover of our employers.

Hm.... Four months... So the GHC MAY conquer territory for itself and take that from neighboring regions as long as they hold it for at least 4 (in-game) months? I'd have no problem with that but some might. Why would the GHC need more land though? Are you not able to produce good quality soldiers with what you've currently got?

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* GHC will not use its territory to quarter or shelter any combatants other than GHC members.

So am I to assume your captains could attack and then flee behind their borders with impunity? That could be a problem. While I agree that no other realms should take over, damage buildings, or loot GHC territory, I don't particularly think such mercenaries should be free from an army following them back into their lands and attacking them. Otherwise, I could just see mercenaries camping on borders and poking out of their territory just far enough to squat armies on someone's land to starve the local settlement, then retreating back to their unassailable land when a defending force shows up.

You do need some kind of protection from serious reprisal. But I think the degree of that protection should be explored more. A lot of factions may want to hire your services but there's a limit as to how useful those factions will consider said services, and if you perform the kind of harassment tactics I mentioned above, that's going to get old fast, until realms decide to shred your contract entirely.

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* First Ones captured by GHC members will be turned over to our current employer as part of our general service contract states.

Agreed.

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* GHC members captured are to be returned back to GHC alive and free of ransom, In return they will immediately return to GHC territory with the remaining men under their service and will no longer be under the bounds of their contract of their employer.

Very reasonable. Agreed.

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* Once we receive payment and a GHC contract takes effect that contract is public and no attempts will be made to hide the identity of the employer.

And.... this is where I really disagree. You're seriously hurting the amount of clientele that would interested in your services by doing this and limited yourself in the kind of work you can perform. There are certain reasons people would pay for mercenaries and not field armies themselves. One, they don't have the armies they need and require extra men to supplement their war efforts. Two, they need extra First Ones that would be willing to fight on the front lines. And Three, because they want to attack someone WITHOUT that person tying it directly to them.

I mentioned before that one of the most attractive elements that you as a mercenary organization can offer is discretion. A client may want to hurt another lord or faction but be unable to do so because they have a diplomatic treaty in place or because their target is their liege or because they're not as strong enough militarily to withstand an outright war.

By not protecting the identity of your employers, you pretty much make it so that anyone who hires you HAS to be in an outright, public war with the ones your hired to fight. But a lot of reasons someone might hire you in the first place would be because they don't want to go to war themselves. And what do your members do if there is no war? No declared war means no work for you, which means this little mercenary realm you've got is going to retire to slumberblight quickly during periods of low/no activity.

You should offer your employers TOTAL discretion right up front, or I'm afraid the business you get will be quite limited. Now, that doesn't mean members can't reveal their employers if they get captured and say-- tortured or threatened with execution. Hell, that'd make for some interesting roleplay. It'd create some tough choices for those who capture your mercenaries as they have to decide "Do I torture/ execute this man and potentially break any opportunity of the GHC working with me in the future or do I let him go and not know who paid them to attack me..." And your mercenaries would have to also reason, "Do I hold fast to the identity of my employer and risk my own death/ mutilation, or do I reveal my employer and break any chance of that employer wanting to hire me again in the future..." [/size][/font]

It'd create those fun situations where mercenaries protect their employer's interests until finally being faced with a lot of pain and death, in which they finally say "The hell with this... no amount of pay is worth this!"

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* Violators of these terms may be banned from future contracts with GHC and will be sought after and punished for their violations. The terms of punishment being decided by the GHC on a case by case basis.

A harsh but understandable response. Immediate expulsion or banning however may not always be warranted or desired however. Consider that the employer that breaks a part of your contract may be the best paying and usually trustworthy. And consider that a member you'd expel for breaking contract may be one of your best captains. What do you do? While I get that violators should be dealt with harshly and that may include termination of members or banning a faction from future contracts, it should not necessarily be guaranteed. Remember that politics is a fickle mistress, especially where self-interest is involved and you may end up shooting yourself in the foot with your own rules.[/size][/font][/quote]

* You recognize that the territory controlled by the GHC as an independent realm and its sovereignty is to be respected at all times. * The GHC may be employed to fight against you, you are to not attack, loot, take over, or harm in any other way GHC territory. Unless under the stipulation that that territory was taken from your realm in the past 4 months. sidenote: it will generally be GHC policy to not take territory directly in favor of supporting the takeover of our employers.

Big NO here. Even if you don't enforce it, you are basically asking for others to recognize your territory as inviolable, and to give you full permission to attack theirs. Furthermore, to swear that if you hold their territory for 4 months, then it becomes yours, inviolable.

Recomendation: State that the GHC may support the takeover of others, but shall never takeover any of your territories without consent, and request the signataries to treat the GHC territories in the same way.

* First Ones captured by GHC members will be turned over to our current employer as part of our general service contract states. * GHC members captured are to be returned back to GHC alive and free of ransom, In return they will immediately return to GHC territory with the remaining men under their service and will no longer be under the bounds of their contract of their employer.

This is another point in which reciprocity is severely lacking. You want total safety for your nobles, but fail to provide the same for your enemies.

Recomendation: Stipulate a fixed gold ransom for First Ones (1k gold?). Say that all nobles captured by or from the GHC will be offered to pay the ransom in order to be freed. Should the nobles and their realms refuse to pay for the ransom, they will be sold to whoever is interested in them. More mercenary-like. In fact, you can charge the realms that hired you in the eventuality of your nobles getting caught.

@Prisoners:They should be a variable part of the contract. 1: Client pays for rights for all prisoners from target, upfront. Add large amount of gold/whatever onto contract. Client gets all prisoners from target realm, no questions asked.

2: Client wants first right of refusal for all prisoners from target. Add small amount of gold/whatever onto contract. Client gets first crack at buying prisoners from GHC, if client chooses not to buy the prisoner, then GHC gains all rights to dealing with the prisoner.

3: Client doesn't pay anything for prisoner rights. GHC has full rights to dealing with the prisoner, examples include ransom to the highest bidder, prisoner exchanges, freeing them, and simply just holding onto them.

You might want to leave in a framework for ransoming/trading GHC members...

Probably setting up a guideline for importance of prisoners is a good idea too. A ruler, general or someone who owns a big settlement is obviously worth more then some landless knight.